Ayariga offered $20m to free Ghana from US agreement

A former Presidential candidate of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr. Hassan Ayariga has offered $20m to free Ghana from the controversial Ghana-US Military Cooperation agreement.

Mr. Ayariga who had kicked against the agreement  said he was ready to remedy the country from the Americans.

Speaking on an Accra based radio station, Asempa FM; Mr. Ayariga said he offered to pay the $20 million being invested by the United State into the Ghana Armed Forces this year as part of the agreement.

“I went there to give them the cheque if they are ready. They should take the $20 million they want and leave Ghana for us. We want to buy off our sovereignty and we think that if it is the money that the military wants to take, they should come for this, we’ll give it to them for free. After all, everybody is supposed to be a stakeholder and help build Ghana,” he said.

Mr. Ayariga who did not get the opportunity to present the cheque to Parliament in order to prevent the deal from being approved, described the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for defence cooperation approved by Parliament on Friday, as “The sale of the country’s sovereignty”.

He said that Dr Kwame Nkrumah bought the sovereignty of Ghana with his life while others died to protect the country, “Military men went to war to get out freedom and a whole lot of people sacrificed their lives to make us have comfortable lives today. So we will not allow the Danquah-Busia tradition to sell our sovereignty for a mere $20 million. We will not do that. If that is what their interests are, we will allow them to have the $20 million and leave us to live in peace”, he said.

Disagreements

Since the defence cooperation became public, it had generated disagreements between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government and the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The NDC members said the agreement, which offered unimpeded access and use of facilities to US forces, undermined the sovereignty of Ghana and would expose the country to danger.

The General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, stated that they would review the agreement when the NDC returned to power.